A woman at a recent Uncommon knowledge hypnosis workshop I was running told us how she had been told by a doctor that her depression would last for ‘years and years’ because ‘it usually does’. She told me that she left her Doctor feeling ‘totally hopeless’ about her future.

Placebo and nocebo (it’s evil twin)

Not only was this woman’s doctor woefully misinformed about depression at it’s prognosis (the average depression lifts spontaneously after between 5 and 8 months with no treatment what so ever! (1) but he clearly had no understanding in the power of words to heal or injure.

This article illustrates the biological basis for negative expectation. We know that placebo is immensely powerful. When you really expect improvement and healing you are much more likely to experience it. But Nocebo or ‘negative placebo’ is, unfortunately, just as potent. Psychotherapists who suggest to their clients that ‘healing is going to be painful and drawn out’ or that they should expect to feel worse before they get better are delivering powerful anti-therapeutic suggestions.

Roger Elliott’s article on the power of optimism nicely shows how ‘expecting the best’ has biological consequences. And just to quote from his article:

‘In one study of elderly people, their perception of their own health was found to be more important in longevity than their actual health.

i) the immune systems of pessimists function less well than those of optimists
ii) optimists have greater life expectancy than pessimists.’

Teachers, therapists, doctors and other ‘people professionals’ all should know the power their predictive statements have when directed at the people they work with.

Mark

(1) Denelsky, Antonuccio and Danton ‘Psychotherapy the best medicine’ 1993